President Napolitano launches review of UCOP organization
July 8, 2014 •
President Janet Napolitano has initiated a comprehensive review of the Office of the President’s organization and goals designed to determine the appropriate size, structure and role of UCOP within the University of California system.
The aim of the review is to ensure that every division is prioritizing work that aligns with OP’s mission and strategic goals, and that OP as a whole and each division individually has the best structure, the right number of staff, and the appropriate budget to best support those goals and UCOP’s role in the UC system.
The findings of the review, which will extend through the rest of the year, will also be used to shape the 2015–16 budget.
“UCOP is the operational and policy hub for UC,” Napolitano said. “Consequently, I believe we need to continuously look for ways to improve.
“It’s our responsibility to make sure that OP resources—both dollars and people—are aligned with our goals and that we support UC’s mission of teaching, research and public service as efficiently and effectively as possible,” she said.
The organizational review builds on a number of other presidential measures aimed at improving UCOP’s effectiveness, including the efficiency review and position control. It is part of a broader, sustained effort to make sure UCOP is staffed, organized and budgeted in the way that best allows it to provide leadership and support to the system.
The review will cover every area of OP, including systemwide programs. It will examine whether divisions, and OP as a whole, are optimally structured. It will assess OP’s functions and whether it makes sense for them to be performed centrally, or whether some of them would be more appropriately carried out locally. Another primary goal of the review is to identify inefficient operations and redundancies within OP and between OP and the campuses. The review will also look at work that can or should be discontinued.
Reducing headcount is not the primary motivation of the review. At the end of the review some areas will likely see increased investment, while others likely will experience a reduction. The effort is meant to build on, not repeat, previous organizational reviews, and it will also consider differences among UCOP divisions. OP leadership recognizes that every UCOP division has a different role, performs different functions, and has a different structure. Leadership intends to take these differences into account when the divisions are assessed.
The project will be governed by a steering committee with representatives from across UCOP. The steering committee and project team are currently being assembled. The steering committee will develop evaluation criteria to assess functions and activities, and how they relate to OP’s mission and strategic goals. The steering committee and project team will then work with each division to apply the evaluation criteria to that division and generate findings and recommendations.
The steering committee will report to the President’s Operation Group, who will both help guide the steering committee’s work and provide recommendations to the President. A final assessment will be delivered to the President Napolitano in December, in time to guide the budget process for 2015–16.
For more on the review, see these Frequently Asked Questions.
